The night seemed to of been colder than it should have, but they had their sleeping bags, so they were all nice and warm in them. Morning came and Bobby was the first up, he was always the first up he went outside then he was back inside waking up Josh.

“Josh something is wrong. Not sure what is going on, but something is off.” his voice had a tinge of worry in it.

What was he talking about? “Go back to bed Bobby. It's to early for this.” Josh was not ready to get up yet, it could wait.

But it was not going to wait as Bobby shook him, “No Josh, this can't wait.” He went over to Manuel and shook him awake. Then he did the same to the others.

Bobby waited outside for them all to gather. They all were half asleep, so they did not really pay attention to their surroundings. While it was a forest it was not like the one, they had fallen asleep to. Bobby had noticed the difference right away, but he was not sure what it meant.

Josh ever the leader of the group looked around for a minute, then back at Bobby, “Ok so something is different for sure. The trees and some of these bushes were not here last night.” But it was not just that the weather felt different, it still felt like summer but not the summer they had left behind.

“Before we start looking around, let’s clean up and change.” They had brought a bag each with some clothes so that they could change after swimming.

After they had cleaned up and gotten changed, they regrouped, “Everyone ready?” They all nodded. Erin took the lead in the direction of where his house was. After about five minutes of walking, they still had not reached Erin’s house, it made no sense his house was no more than two minutes away from where they had been camping.

Erin stopped and turned to his friends, “We should have reached it already, maybe we got turned around somehow, let’s get back to our things and try again.” So, they turned and return to their camping site.

As they cleared the tree’s next to their camp, they noticed something strange. Next to one of their tents there was a floating ball, it seemed to be made from metal and above it there was a projection of ‘Welcome.’ They approached this thing slowly as it was just strange that it would be there.

They looked at each other than at the floating ball. Pepe looked at Manuel, “Que es esa cosa?” Manuel shook his head he had no idea either.

The thing started to beep then it spoke, “Translating, what is this thing.” It beeped again, “This thing is Registration Node 1A25, but you can call me Regi.” And it chuckled, “Please form a line and register.”

Get in line to register for what? Maybe it knew where they were and how they could go back home. Josh went in front of Regi, “Regi, you say, where are we?”

The node beeped again processing the request, “Apologies, unable to comply, registration has not taken place.”

“So, we have to register first before you can answer any questions.” Manuel shrugged and nodded to his friends and got in line behind Josh, the rest followed suit behind him.

Beep, beep, beep, “Si mi amigo. Have to register first.” The thing was kind of funny the way it talked to them.

“Fine so let me register then.” Josh was ready for whatever this thing was going to do.

Bloop, beep, screech, “Place both hands on registration node as indicated by the flashing lights.” On either side of the Node small blinking lights showed Josh placed his hands as indicated.

Beep, beep, bloop, “State name for the records.”

“Josh Casters.”

“Josh Casters welcome. Scanning to optimize recommendations.” Lights flashed on either side of Regi and a pinprick was felt on the right hand as if a small bug had bit Joshes hand, “Please step aside so companions may register.”

And so, they did each saying their individual names.

“Manuel Lopez”

“Registered.” Followed by the pin prick to the right hand.

“Erin Duvoi.”

“Pepe Garzia.”

“Bobby Smyth.”

Bleep, blop, screech, “Registering Party of five. We will move on to the party roles.”

“Wait what? What do you mean party roles?” This was starting to sound like some kind of video game.

“Yes, Party Roles as in Defense, Offence, Support. You know like in video games.” Had this thing just read Josh’s mind? They probably all thought the same thing, “Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. Please leave any questions till the end of this presentation.”

And so Regi began his explanation and just like that they were in some kind of game, but it felt so real. How had they gotten here? Why were they here? And what did they have to do to go home?

“The Warrior class is your standard meat shield.” Ah yes, the good old tank class.

“Un Guerrero sweet. I am so down with that.” That was Manuel for some reason he liked that in all his games.

“The Healer, it’s in the name if I have to explain it, you all are not gonna make it.” Regi was excited explaining this, the way it was talking just sounded that way, as if it did not normally get a chance to explain this.

Both Erin and Bobby looked like they were interested in that role.

“We also have your standard Damage Dealers, for those of you that like to get up and personal we have the Thief. And if you prefer long range types, we have the ever-popular Ranger.” He paused for a few seconds as if he was letting it sink in and he was ready to sell you more, “And of course we have the magic pew, pew kind as well, we can’t forget them, the magic wilder type the Wizard. Oooooh.”

They waited for more but nothing else came from Regi concerning classes.

The friends went to the side to talk this over.

Manuel since he had already said he wanted to be a Warrior spoke up, “Amigos I am the Tank, you know I am always the tank. Go meat shield!”

Pepe spoke up for Thief.

Erin had decided he wanted to try Ranger.

Josh went with Wizard.

And Healer fell to Bobby.

And so, they went one by one and registered for those classes.

“Excellent choices! Role Registration is now complete. Welcome to Reladur, we hope your stay here is pleasant and that you visit us again. Now for the FAQs.” A sort of screen popped up in front of their eyes.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

No, I can’t send you back home. No, I have no idea how you got here. No, it’s not a video game. Yes, you can get hurt, but no you won’t really die

“Try not to die if at all possible. There are some rather nasty affects if you manage to get yourself killed that last a while. Also avoid getting the worlds inhabitants killed, they unlike you will experience true death. Any other questions?”

“So, what do we do now?” Even though it was Bobby who asked the rest had thought the same thing.

“That’s an easy one, you go to the Starter Town of course. Where else are you going to start? I will add that one to the FAQ. Please bring up your [GUI] and let’s look at what we have.” The screen changed and showed information about them.

Name Role STATS (STA/AGI/INT/CHA) HP/MP/AC Josh[L] Wizard 10/10/15/17 30/60/0 Pepe Thief 10/16/9/15 30/0/48 Manuel Warrior 18/12/9/11 54/0/36 Erin Ranger 13/15/10/12 39/0/45 Bobby Healer 11/10/18/11 33/72/0

[Leader (L)] – As leader you get an extra Charisma Boost (+2), this boost is lost when going solo.

“You can see your base stats here,” each of their names was highlighted one by one, “While you are registered for those roles you will need to seek a mentor to teach you more. I will provide you with a map so that you know where you are going.” The map appeared out of thin air and was floating in front of Erin, he grabbed it and unrolled it.

The map showed a very small area around where their camp was and the direction where they had gone in search of Erin’s house. To the south of them was what could only be described as a town and just like Regi had said it was labeled Starter Town. The map did not have much detail to it, only the area that they had explored seemed to be shown on the map.

“Again, welcome and have a great time. This is Registration Node 1A25 signing off.” There was a flash….

“Wait!” Regi was gone, whatever Erin was going to ask it would have to wait.

At least they had a direction and something to do. They needed to get to this Starter Town and work out the how to of the roles they had decided they would play. But was play the right word? While this all looked like a video game to them, it was anything but a game. The whole getting hurt part was not good, and what was the whole ‘nasty affects’ Regi had mentioned. He had not really gone over that part at all and none of them was looking forward to finding out about that.

Each of them was alerted by a beep, the beep made them jump they were not expecting it, “Que es eso?” Manuel looked around for the source of the beep. The beep came again, then again.

Bobby was the one that figured out how to bring up the GUI, “GUI?”

HelpNodeX223: “Hello user Bobby. Is that snob Registration Node 1A25 finally gone?

“Um, yes he is.” They all heard the Help Node even though they had not brought up their GUI.

“Oh, good he is… well let’s just say that I can’t believe we are related.” A little frustration could be heard in the Nodes voice, the voice itself was that of a young woman, Regi’s voice sounded like that of an older teenage boy, “But where are my manners, I am HelpNodeX223 it is nice to meet you all. I will be here for the duration of your stay. Regi should have introduced us before he left but he has to be in the spotlight.” Again, the tinge of frustration.

“Oh, nice to meet you HelpNodeX223. Can we call you something else, your name is a mouth full?” The others nodded.

“Le podemos llamar Maria.” Manuel had a crush on a girl in class named Marry and referred to her as Maria.

“Registering new name,” bleep, screech, blop, “Request complete, you may refer to me as Maria from now on.”

Bobby took the lead, “Maria what is the safest way to Starter Town?”

Bleep, bleep, “Map updated. While I may only provide limited information, I have provided the safest route. I will be learning with you as we progress on this journey. I am your keeper of knowledge. While that may be the case, unfortunately just like Regi I do not have many answers.”

Erin looked at the map again, and while not a lot of detail was present dashed lines had appeared leading them to Starter Town, “Thank you, Maria.”

“You are most welcome; I am glad you have good manners. My sister Node was not so lucky.” That was interesting news maybe others were here now.

“Time to go muchachos.”

They broke down the camp and packed all their belongings and started their trip to Starter Town. The group was not sure what this was all about, but what else were they going to do? They would play along and get to this Starter Town.